THERIDION. 
181 
with the exception of the digital joint, which has a reddish-brown tint, and are terminated by 
a curved, pectinated claw. The abdomen is thinly clothed with hairs, pointed at the spinners, 
very convex above, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; on the upper part 
various shades of yellowish-brown, black, and yellowish-white colours are distributed in lines, 
streaks, and spots ; from the anterior part of the summit of the convexity a curved, yellowish- 
white line extends on each side, two shorter ones are directed towards the spinners, and 
others, more or less curved, towards the cephalo-thorax; on the posterior half there is a large, 
yellowish-brown space, bordered irregularly with black, and intersected by transverse, curved, 
black bars and lines; the sides are of a yellowish-brown colour, streaked and spotted with 
black, and the under part, which has a brownish-black tint, is marked with a yellowish-brown 
spot, freckled with white, above the outer margin of each branchial operculum, another below 
the sexual organs, and an irregular, transverse bar of the same hue nearer to the spinners; 
the sexual organs are conspicuous, and have a dark, reddish-brown tint; and the colour of 
the branchial opercula is yellow. This species varies considerably in colour, but the charac¬ 
teristic marks on the abdomen are always more or less apparent. 
The male is much smaller, darker coloured, and less distinctly marked than the female; 
the relative length of its legs also is different, the second pair surpassing the fourth. The 
palpi are of a yellowish-brown colour, with the exception of the radial and digital joints, 
which have a dark-brown tint; the radial joint is larger than the cubital; the digital joint is 
somewhat oval, with a pointed process at its base, which falls into a notch on the inner side 
of the radial joint, and extends to its, articulation with the cubital joint; it is convex and 
hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed, 
prominent, not very complicated in structure, and are terminated by a strong, curved, 
corneous process, which projects beyond the extremity of the joint; they are of a red-brown 
colour. 
Though Theridion tepidariorum has not been observed in the open air in this country, yet 
it is not uncommon in conservatories, where it constructs among the stems of plants, and in 
the angles formed by partitions, an extensive, complicated snare, somewhat of a pyramidal 
form, which consists of numerous fine, glossy lines, intersecting one another in different planes 
and at various angles. The sexes pair in June, and during the summer and autumn the 
female fabricates several balloon-shaped cocoons of different sizes, varying from one fifth to 
one third of an inch in diameter, which she suspends in the upper part of her snare, with the 
larger extremities downwards; they are composed of reddish-brown silk, of a fine but compact 
texture, and the largest of them sometimes comprises between four hundred and five hundred 
spherical eggs, of a pale, yellowish-white colour, not agglutinated together. Young spiders 
and cocoons containing eggs may frequently be seen in the snare at the same time. 
In Germany, as in Britain, this species has only been met with in conservatories, a 
circumstance which has induced M. Koch to conjecture, with great probability, that it is not 
indigenous to that country, but that it has been introduced with exotic plants; and this 
conjecture applies with equal force to our own country. His words are, “ Fast mochte ich 
diese Art als eine ursprunglich deutsche in Zweifel ziehen, indem sie, wie es scheint, nur in 
warmen Glashausern vorkommt; vielleicht ist ilire Brut mit aussereuropaischen Pflanzen 
nach Deutschland gebracht worden ” (‘Die Arachn.,’ B. viii, p. 78). 
